Serpstat vs. Ahrefs: A Comparison of SEO Powerhouse Tools for 2025

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When it comes to SEO, the tools you use can make or break your strategy. With so many options available, it’s no surprise that marketers often find themselves weighing between Serpstat vs. Ahrefs. 🔍

Ahrefs is known for its detailed backlink analysis, comprehensive keyword research, and rank tracking capabilities, making it a strong choice for users who want deep SEO insights.

Serpstat, on the other hand, is a more affordable, all-in-one solution that includes SEO, pay-per-click (PPC), and competitive analysis, which can be useful for those managing multiple aspects of digital marketing within a single tool.

So, how does Serpstat vs. Ahrefs stack up against each other?

In this article, we’ll break down their key features, pricing, and overall performance to help you decide which platform fits your SEO goals best. 🚀

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What Is Serpstat?

Serpstat is an all-in-one SEO platform designed to help businesses, marketers, and SEO professionals optimize their websites for better visibility and performance. 

It provides a wide range of features, making it a versatile solution for those looking to manage their SEO, PPC, and competitive analysis efforts in one place.

With a comprehensive set of tools that include keyword research, backlink analysis, rank tracking, AI content generation, and site audits, Serpstat is popular for users who want an affordable and efficient way to handle various aspects of digital marketing.

Serpstat main dashboard
Via Serpstat

Also, Serpstat stands out with its easy-to-use interface, and it caters to users at all levels, from small businesses to large enterprises. 

Serpstat Popular Features

Serpstat covers a broad spectrum of SEO needs, and some of its standout features include the following:

  • Keyword Research: Get detailed search volume data, keyword difficulty scores, and related keywords to help users discover the best keywords for their campaigns.
  • Backlink Analysis: Analyze backlinks and competitor profiles to identify link-building opportunities.
  • Rank Tracking: Track keyword positions across multiple search engines and locations, offering insights into how rankings evolve over time.
  • Site Audit: Identify and fix technical SEO issues to improve website performance.
  • Competitor Analysis: Analyze competitors’ keywords, backlinks, and ad strategies to give users a competitive edge.
  • PPC Analysis: Gain insights into paid search strategies, revealing keywords and ad performance for competitors.
  • AI Content Generation: Create SEO-optimized content and other types of text leveraging artificial intelligence. 

Serpstat Pricing Structure

Serpstat offers several pricing tiers to accommodate various needs and budgets:

  • Individual plan: $69 per month, access to core features (Keyword Research, Site Analysis, Rank Tracker, Site Audit, Backlink Analysis), 5 projects, 10,000 position checks, and more.
  • Team plan: $129 per month, access to extended features (everything in Individual + API, Share Access, AI Tools, Batch Analysis, Scheduled Report), unlimited projects, 50,000 position checks, and more. 
  • Agency plan: $499 per month, access to all features (everything in Team + White Label Reports, Data Engineer Consultation), 500,000 position checks, and more. 

What Is Ahrefs?

Ahrefs is a comprehensive SEO platform offering a wide range of tools for backlink analysis, keyword research, competitor analysis, and site audits. It provides in-depth insights that help you improve your SEO strategy.

Originally launched as a backlink checker, Ahrefs has since expanded into an all-in-one SEO toolkit, providing features that cover everything from keyword tracking to content exploration.

ahrefs main dashboard
Via Ahrefs

Known for its extensive backlink database, Ahrefs offers powerful tools to analyze your site’s authority, track keyword rankings, and uncover new link building opportunities. 

Whether you need to audit your website, research competitors, or explore valuable keywords, Ahrefs provides the necessary data to optimize your SEO efforts.

Ahrefs Popular Features

Ahrefs covers all aspects of SEO with its diverse set of tools. Some of the key features include:

  • Site Explorer: Get a detailed analysis of backlinks, organic traffic, and competitor strategies.
  • Keywords Explorer: Access comprehensive data on search volume, keyword difficulty, and potential traffic for any keyword.
  • Site Audit: Identify and fix technical SEO issues, providing actionable insights to improve site performance.
  • Content Explorer: Discover top-performing content by analyzing backlinks and social shares.
  • Rank Tracker: Monitor keyword rankings and get visibility metrics over time.
  • AI-Powered Insights: Receive suggestions to optimize content based on competitor data and SEO trends.

Ahrefs Pricing Structure

Ahrefs has several pricing tiers:

  • Lite Plan: $129 per month, Site Explorer, Keywords Explorer, Site Audit, Rank Tracker, 5 projects, 6 months of historical data, 750 tracked keywords, and 100,000 crawl credits.
  • Standard Plan: $249 per month, everything in Lite, Content Explorer, Batch Analysis, 20 projects, 2 years of historical data, 2,000 tracked keywords, and 500,000 crawl credits.
  • Advanced Plan: $449 per month, everything in Standard, Web Explorer, Looker Studio integration, 50 projects, 5 years of historical data, 5,000 tracked keywords, and 1,500,000 crawl credits.
  • Enterprise Plan: $1,499 per month, everything in Advance, API access, and additional customization options. Requires an annual commitment.

Additionally, Ahrefs offers a Starter Plan at $29 per month for basic functionality and a free plan with limited access to some of the tools. Optional add-ons, like the Content Kit and Report Builder, are available for those seeking extra features.

Serpstat vs. Ahrefs: Which SEO Tool Offers the Best ROI for Your Strategy?

Ahrefs and Serpstat. Both tools offer comprehensive features, but their strengths lie in different areas—whether it’s backlink analysis, keyword research, or leveraging AI for content optimization.

Explore our head-to-head comparison of Ahrefs and Serpstat to help you determine which tool best fits your SEO strategy for 2025. 📝

1. Backlink Analysis

Ahrefs Backlink Checker
Via Ahrefs

Ahrefs has one of the largest backlink databases in the industry, providing detailed insights into referring domains, new and lost backlinks, anchor text distribution, and historical backlink trends. 

Its Site Explorer tool offers metrics like Domain Rating (DR) and URL Rating (UR) to evaluate link quality, along with competitive backlink analysis to uncover link building opportunities.

serpstat backlink analysis
Via Serpstat

Serpstat also includes backlink features, offering data on referring domains, anchor text, and lost/new backlinks. Additionally, it provides toxic link detection, helping users identify harmful backlinks that may affect rankings. 

However, its backlink database isn’t as vast or frequently updated as Ahrefs.

Winner: Ahrefs

Ahrefs has a more extensive and frequently updated backlink database, making it the stronger choice for backlink analysis.

2. Keyword Research

Ahrefs Keywords Explorer
Via Ahrefs

Ahrefs’ Keyword Explorer offers a vast keyword database across multiple search engines, providing metrics like search volume, keyword difficulty, traffic potential, and click-through rate (CTR) estimates. 

It also includes keyword suggestions based on competitor rankings, making it a strong tool for finding high-potential keywords.

serpstat keyword research tool
Via Serpstat

Serpstat also includes a robust keyword research tool with data on search volume, keyword difficulty, related keywords, and PPC insights. 

It supports multiple search engines and offers keyword clustering, grouping similar keywords to help structure content strategies. While useful, its database is not as large as Ahrefs.

Winner: Ahrefs

Ahrefs provides more detailed keyword metrics and a larger database, making it the better option for keyword research.

3. Site Audits and SEO Tools

ahrefs site auditor
Via Ahrefs

The Ahrefs Site Audit tool scans websites for technical SEO issues, including broken links, crawl errors, and duplicate content. 

It assigns a health score and provides prioritized recommendations for fixing SEO problems.

Ahrefs also visualizes internal linking opportunities, making it easier to optimize site structure.

Serpstat site audit showing HTTP status, meta tag, and multimedia issues summary
Via Serpstat

Serpstat’s SEO Audit also detects technical issues such as page speed problems, missing meta tags, and broken links. 

It offers a comprehensive error report with optimization suggestions. Serpstat also provides additional insights into website visibility and competitor performance, which can be beneficial.

Winner: Tie

Both tools offer solid site auditing features, and the choice depends on whether you prefer Ahrefs’ deeper technical analysis or Serpstat’s additional visibility insights.

4. Competitor Analysis

ahrefs site explorer
Via Ahrefs

Ahrefs provides a detailed competitive analysis through Site Explorer and Content Explorer, allowing users to track competitor backlinks, top-ranking pages, and organic keyword performance.

The Content Gap tool helps users find keywords that competitors rank for but they do not.

Serpstat competitor analysis showing common and missing keywords, relevance, and visibility metrics for serpstat.com and its SEO competit
Via Serpstat

Serpstat also has a Competitor Research tool, which analyzes organic and paid competitors, identifies keyword overlaps, and tracks traffic distribution. The Tree View feature shows how competitors rank for similar queries, offering additional search strategy insights.

Winner: Serpstat

Even though Ahrefs has an array of interesting features, Serpstat excels in keyword overlap analysis and PPC tracking—which gave the tool a slight edge here. 

5. Pricing & Value

Ahrefs has four pricing tiers, starting at $129 per month, with premium plans reaching $1,499 per month. It also offers a limited free plan with access to basic webmaster tools.

Serpstat is more affordable, with plans starting at $69 per month and going up to $499 per month. It also offers cheaper additional user seats, making it a cost-effective option for teams.

Winner: Tie

Serpstat is generally more affordable, offering lower entry-level plans, while Ahrefs provides a broader feature set at a higher cost. 

Ultimately, the best value depends on your specific SEO priorities and budget, making this category a tie.

6. AI SEO

ahrefs content explorer
Via Ahrefs

Ahrefs has recently introduced AI-driven insights, such as the AI Content Helper, that help refine content strategies.

These features provide competitor-backed optimization suggestions, keyword clustering, and on-page SEO insights based on ranking patterns.

serpstat ai content tools
Via Serpstat

Serpstat includes AI content generation and AI-assisted keyword clustering, which groups keywords based on search intent, helping users structure content efficiently.

Additionally, its SEO text recommendations suggest keyword density, readability improvements, and optimization techniques.

Winner: No clear winner

Neither Serpstat nor Ahrefs fully harnesses AI for a complete SEO workflow. While they offer AI-powered features like content generation and optimization suggestions, their capabilities remain limited.

Neither tool seamlessly integrates AI across all SEO aspects, leaving gaps in a truly automated SEO strategy. 🤖

Looking for More Than Ahrefs or Serpstat? Search Atlas Raises the Bar

When comparing Ahrefs vs. Serpstat, it’s clear that both tools have strengths—but neither offers a complete, AI-powered SEO solution. 

Ahrefs excels in backlink analysis and keyword research, while Serpstat is a budget-friendly alternative with solid SEO tools. 

But if you’re looking for a platform that streamlines every aspect of SEO with automation and AI-driven insights, Search Atlas stands out as the smarter choice.

Search Atlas Features

search atlas main dashboard main screen first screen main menu
Explore the Search Atlas main dashboard—your central hub for accessing essential SEO tools and insights from the very first screen.

Search Atlas isn’t just an SEO toolkit—it’s an all-in-one platform that brings together advanced backlink tracking, real-time keyword research, AI-powered content generation, and automated technical SEO fixes. 

It eliminates the need for multiple tools by offering a unified, AI-driven experience.

Link Building

navigational keyword intent example search atlas backlink analyzer
An example of navigational keyword intent where the user searches for “Search Atlas backlink analyzer,” leading to direct brand-related results for backlink analysis tools on the Search Atlas website.

While Ahrefs boasts a massive backlink database and Serpstat provides basic link-tracking features, Search Atlas goes beyond both by integrating AI-powered link analysis and outreach automation:

  • Real-Time Backlink Tracking: Monitor new and lost links instantly.
  • AI-Driven Link Scoring: Quickly assess link quality and toxicity.
  • Automated Outreach Tools: Streamline link-building efforts with AI-powered email suggestions.

Keyword Research 

Search Atlas KW research
Via Search Atlas KW research

Ahrefs offers a powerful keyword research tool, and Serpstat provides decent insights at a lower price. But Search Atlas revolutionizes keyword research with real-time SERP tracking, AI-generated topic clusters, and intent-based keyword suggestions:

  • AI-Powered Keyword Clustering: Group keywords by topic to build authoritative content.
  • Search Intent Analysis: Identify transactional, informational, and navigational keywords.
  • Competitor Keyword Gap Insights: Find high-value opportunities competitors are ranking for.

OTTO

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Ahrefs and Serpstat both offer SEO audit tools, but they only point out issues—Search Atlas fixes them. With OTTO, your AI SEO assistant, you can:

  • Run instant SEO health checks and get an automated report.
  • Fix broken links, metadata issues, and technical errors in one click.
  • Get AI-powered on-page SEO recommendations tailored to your site.

Content Genius

Content Genius Terms Assistant in Search Atlas with content score and keyword suggestions
Content Genius Terms Assistant boosts SEO with real-time scores and keyword insights.

Neither Ahrefs nor Serpstat fully leverage AI for content marketing. While they offer some AI-powered features, Search Atlas takes content optimization to another level with:

  • AI-generated, SEO-optimized articles tailored to ranking factors.
  • Real-time NLP optimization for better search performance.
  • AI-driven topic planning to structure content for maximum visibility.

Search Atlas Pricing

While Ahrefs and Serpstat both have pricing plans that vary based on features, Search Atlas delivers more AI-powered automation at a competitive cost—offering the best balance between advanced SEO tools, automation, and affordability.

Starter planGrowth planPro plan
Price$99/month$199/month$399/month
Free OTTO activation113
User seats235
GSC Site Projects515Unlimited
Content Assistant Keywords120300600
Onpage In-Depth Audits40100200
Content Plans40100200
Pages / Articles Created40100200
Full Article Generation Quota306090
Regular AI Quota10025099,999
Site Auditor Projects510100
Keyword Rank Tracking Projects20501000
Keyword Research Lookups50020005000
Competitor Research Credit200020,00050,000

Search Atlas Redefines SEO Efficiency

SEO isn’t just about data—it’s about using the right tools to streamline workflows, uncover insights, and drive real results.

While Ahrefs and Serpstat offer useful features, Search Atlas takes it further with AI-driven automation, seamless SEO integration, and a complete toolset for backlink tracking, keyword research, content optimization, and more. 🏆

Why settle for limitations? Get a smarter, faster, and more efficient SEO experience with Search Atlas. Try it for FREE today!

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Picture of Emanuel de Macedo
Emanuel.de.Macedo
Emanuel de Macêdo is a Content Strategist with more than 5 years of experience in content marketing and SEO. He has worked across various industries, including finance, marketing, and technology, creating high-impact content strategies for B2B and B2C audiences.

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